CIA: Al-Qaeda Using Syria as Base of Operations to Attack West

John O. Brennan and the CIA are cultivating a new gambit in the ongoing effort to overthrow the Syrian government and install a regime more amenable to the West and the financial elite.

“We are concerned about the use of Syrian territory by the al-Qaeda organization to recruit individuals and develop the capability to be able not just to carry out attacks inside of Syria, but also to use Syria as a launching pad,” Brennan told a hearing before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in February. “There are camps inside of both Iraq and Syria that are used by al-Qaeda to develop capabilities that are applicable, both in the theater, as well as beyond.”

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said around 7,500 of the foreign mercenaries in Syria pose a domestic terror threat to the United States. “Among them are a small group of Af-Pak al-Qaeda veterans with aspirations of external attack in Europe, if not the homeland,” he said.